What is Hatha Yoga?
Image by Andre de Freitas; Like The Sun, Like The Moon* Students new to yoga are often confused regarding the Sanskrit word hatha, both about its meaning and its pronunciation. Let’s clear up the...
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Cit Vs. Citta
What is consciousness? We obviously can’t answer this question in a few hundred words. Nonetheless, yoga students should know a little something about the subject, since it’s the focus of the earliest...
View ArticleWhat Does Vinyasa Mean?
Image by Abby Bunnell: Sun Salutation The question before us today is: What does vinyasa mean? And why did it become synonymous with chaturanga – up dog – down dog? The first part of the question is...
View ArticleSwaha!
Image by Mike Harrison : Let Go “The best laid schemes of mice and men, Often go awry.” -Robert Burns, “To A Mouse” For the past five years, I’ve worked as the jury coordinator of the Hamptons...
View ArticleTo Yoke: It’s a Verb
Have you ever wondered where the word Yoga comes from? I mean, besides India. Knowing the dictionary definition of this word barely scratches the surface. An ancient tale on the other hand can really...
View ArticleAyurveda: Science of Life
Ayuh (which becomes ayur) means life while veda signifies science. Ayurveda means the science of life. Another translation for ayurveda is longevity of life. Ayurveda is an ancient medical system from...
View ArticleSanskrit Glossary: Guru
GURU: Gu means dark, and Ru is the syllable connoting removal. Guru represents the force, which supports the removal of all that is dark in us. Guru is a force, not a person, though the word guru is a...
View ArticleNamaste
Image by Erika Morrison Bunda, Within Reach can be purchased here. What does the word namaste mean to you? It’s something that I say to my students at the end of every yoga class, and most of them say...
View ArticleSanskrit Glossary: Om
Om is all things in manifestation represented by the sounds A, U, M. Om is beyond manifestation and extends into silence. The inner Om is known as the sound of silence or the sound of nadam. Om is...
View ArticleSanskrit Glossary: Dharma
Dharma means the path or the righteous way. It is a prevalent term in buddhism as it is the ground of the buddhist path. Dharma signifies that which upholds you. The word dharma derives from the...
View ArticleDharma and Breath
I’m not proud to admit it, but before practicing yoga, when I heard the word “dharma”, I would think of the late 90’s sitcom “Dharma and Greg”. What can I say? I watched way too much TV growing up....
View ArticleSanskrit Glossary: Ahimsa
Ahimsa is the first yama in Lord Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra text. Ahimsa and Satya are the main yamas that guided Mahatma Gandhi. Himsa means to harm or to hurt. If you place a short a in front of this...
View ArticleIgnorance: Bliss or Suffering?
“They say ignorance is bliss… they’re wrong.” - Franz Kafka Growing up in the west, I often heard the old adage, “Ignorance is bliss.” Then I discovered yoga in college and I read that, “Ignorance is...
View ArticleWhat The Heck Are The Koshas?
“The soul makes the body.” - Ralph Waldo Emmerson ~ “You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body, temporarily.” - Walter M. Miller Jr. So, we have a body. It’s just one of those things...
View ArticleSanskrit Glossary: Samsara
Samsara means the repeated experience of illusion. It is a term used in yoga to signify the endless cyclic nature of ignorance, time, birth and death. It reflects our mis-identification with our...
View ArticleSanskrit Glossary: Jai-jaya
The word jai means victory in Hindi. In Sanskrit, the word is spelled, jaya. In our culture we have words that signify a similar meaning, but they are used in a kind of slang sense. Things like, ‘right...
View ArticleSanskrit Glossary: Abhyasa
In Sanskrit, the word abhyasa holds both the meaning of repetition and practice. The word centralizes around the verbal root AS, which is prefixed by the preposition ABHI. ABHI – AS means to be...
View ArticleSanskrit Glossary: Cakra
Cakra is a wheel or a disc. In the Ashtanga Yoga Mantra, the wheel is poised in the hand of lord Patanjali. Here the disc symbolizes the endless succession of time. Cakras are commonly known as...
View ArticleSanskrit Glossary: Kirtan
Sanskrit root: Kir – to tell, to praise. Kirtan is an offering made to the divine in the form of singing or chanting. A group of students gather together with one person known as a Kirtan Wallah, who...
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